


Our Sacred Vows

by Yuriy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon, Domestic Fluff, M/M, We Just Love Each Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-19 16:07:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17004816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yuriy/pseuds/Yuriy
Summary: It had been his dream for as long as he could remember. Ever since he was a small boy, he had watched the dark sky over his head with fascination, with his heart beating loudly in his chest, and his mouth open in awe.It hadn't been Keith's dream. It was never his and he never entertained the idea either.  However Keith was a pilot and it was all he could offer. He was a pilot in a race where he refused to wait any longer.





	Our Sacred Vows

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ourviolentends](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ourviolentends/gifts).



> Hi, there!
> 
> This story takes place somewhere in episode two (s07) when the paladins are returning to Earth. It's mostly focused on Shiro, but it jumps to Keith a bit. 
> 
> To my dearest ourviolentends: Thank you for showing me Voltron. I enjoyed watching the series with you, to the very end, and I'm happy about all our rantings and ideas. Thank you, sweetie pie. 
> 
> I hope everyone enjoys the story. It's been awhile since the last time I wrote and published something. Let's cheer up a little after the season finale :)

It had been his dream for as long as he could remember. Ever since he was a small boy, he had watched the dark sky over his head with fascination, with his heart beating loudly in his chest, and his mouth open in awe. He had drawn it over and over in tattered notebooks, in forgotten napkins, doddles in the back of a book. It had been his dream to be up there, with the stars and see what was beyond his tiny planet.

It had been his dream and he had told everyone about it, with a big smile, and his eyes shining. It had been one of his teachers, with an equally bright smile, who had given Shiro his first space book. A token, for being smart, and polite, and she had said: “You will get far, Takashi-kun. Just remember: patience yield focus. You will have to work hard from now on.” And he had worked hard, leaving skin, bone and blood. Shiro still had that book in his quarters, back in the Galaxy Garrison. The book, signed with those same words: _«patience yields focus. Work hard, Takashi-kun»_ had put him through his briefs moments of hesitation and indecision. It had been his dream, and then, in his teens, it became his life-goal.

Then Shiro had made the dream come true and with each passing day it seemed closer and closer to reality. Some nights, when he and Adam looked at the starry sky above their heads in that endless dessert, Shiro would stretch his hand towards the black vault above them, his fingers opening and closing, and a bright smile would be on his lips, and he would tell Adam how he almost could touch the stars—and Adam… Adam would watch, with his feet firmly on the ground, as Shiro’s wings stretched, ready to fly.

Shiro met Keith as if fate had led his path to him, to the kid with the sullen face and the bright spirit that no one seemed to see. It was so clear to Shiro, so obvious, that he couldn’t understand how people could be so blinded. Keith had never been an easy person, but Shiro’s dreams were not known for being easy. And slowly, so very slowly, Keith had begun to open up—still defensive, always defensive, because Keith was so used to just being pushed aside that he had to be ready for it, ready to pull up all his shields on and pretend he hadn’t been caught off guard.

He had promised Keith he would be back. He had given him a spiel about eating his vegetables, to be patient, to bloom, and then, to show him how much he had grown once Shiro came back. It had been a promise to Keith and to himself. Shiro had wanted to see the space, to wander, and neither his weak health nor Adam’s ultimatum had kept him from his dream. But Keith’s eyes, suddenly sombre, as if his fiery spirit had frozen, reduced to nothing but cinders, had made Shiro pause, reconsider, hesitate.

“I will win this time,” Keith had said, forced, but trying. Shiro had shown him his book as well, because it was his dream, and he would tell everyone about it. “When you come back,” Keith clarified, slowly, tasting the words as one would do a foreign, spicy flavour.

There hadn’t been many smiles, and Shiro had parted with half his heart on Earth. There hadn’t been tears either, only a promise and Keith’s reluctant acceptance, Keith believing that this time, as impossible as it seemed, someone wanted to come back to him. That promise kept Shiro’s resolution while in captivity, kept him focused, grounded, and determined to find a way out. Shiro had promised to go back and Keith…Keith had believed him.

In the end, Keith had been the one finding his way to Shiro. Keith had waited, yes, but he had also flown himself into the sky, never looking back, as if staying had never been an option. It had never been an option, not back then, not now. And Keith had grown into a fine paladin, his spirit brighter than ever, fuller than ever before with his lost mother by his side, with people who trusted him, who loved him by his side.

“I never thought we would go back to Earth. It hasn’t been that long, but it feels like an entire life has passed since the Kerberos mission,” Shiro looked at the space in front of them, at the stars that had led him away from his planet of birth to see what lied beyond. He didn’t regret his decision, even without an arm, he has far more now than he had had before.

“I wouldn’t have minded,” Keith said a moment later, quietly, as if he was talking to himself more than Shiro. “If you want to come back after we fight…I won’t mind it either.”

Shiro turned his head so fast to look at Keith that he almost got dizzy. A cold, dreary feeling in his chest made it hard for him to breath, afraid of making a noise, as if that would sent him reeling back to that dark place where Haggar had kept him.

“I’m a better pilot now. Wherever you race, I can outrun you there,” and Keith smiled at him a half-smile, a mocking gesture, a jab. “You’re old,” he added, before laughing a little, easing Shiro in a way he didn’t seem to notice, except _Keith knows_.

It had always been Shiro’s dream. It was part of who he was. Keith pressed a couple of buttons, leaving Black in autopilot, before turning to where Shiro was and their eyes met. It was peaceful, like being home, no matter if they were in the middle of space, or the dessert, or Shiro’s small, family house lost to time and old memories.

“I never cared about the stars the way you do. I still don’t. I’m not an explorer. That’s never been my dream. I know even you will want to come back—because we will win, and you will want to make something diplomatic, or missions, or find another reason to come back again, and again, and again. This isn’t my dream, Shiro, but I am a good pilot and you will need one. I’m not going to stay behind this time, even if you promise to come back—I’m coming with you.”

And this is a dream Shiro never thought he would have, but it feels right, as if this is what was always meant to be.

“No,” he smiled, shortening the distance between them, resting his hand in Keith’s shoulder, closer to his neck, and caressing the spot under his ear. “Waiting is not your thing.”

There was no other way for them. Shiro loved stars, but would give up if Keith needed it. Except Keith was a pilot, and he had always been more action than talk, and Earth doesn’t feel like a prison, or home, but a journey, because home was whatever they were together, even that small space on the cabin of Black under Krolia’s watchful eyes.


End file.
